England admitted their World T20 hopes were blasted by the man who hits the ball further and more often than anyone else on the planet.

They were marmalised by a Chris Gayle-storm in Mumbai as the man who has hit the most sixes ever in T20 cricket added another eleven to his tally.

The 36-year-old can barely bring himself to run between the wickets, but boy did he make up for it with a brutal display of hitting that sent England to a six-wicket defeat and a battle to stay in the tournament on Friday.

“He’s a world class player, tonight was his night,” admitted England skipper Eoin Morgan. “He probably hits it further than anyone else. I’ve seen Keiron Pollard hit one onto the pavilion at Lord’s, but these were big ones.

“Everyone knows how he plays and if he gets himself in then he is difficult to stop. He was outstanding in conditions that favoured the bat with the ball skidding on.

Unstoppable: Gayle smashes one of his shots for six (Photo: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui)

There is not a lot any bowler can do when Gayle is in this kind of mood. He took a pair of back-to-back sixes off Adil Rashid and Ben Stokes before hitting a triple from the last three balls of Moeen Ali’s fourth over to effectively win the game.

And when he reached the second international T20 hundred of his career, the deep dark stare turned in an instant into a beaming, infectious smile as he celebrated with a new dance for 2016.

In 2012 when the Windies won the tournament in Sri Lanka, they did it with Gayle leading the way with the Gangnam-style dance, but this time he is supporting a new Soca song by team-mate Dwayne Bravo called ‘Champion’ and he certainly batted like one in Mumbai.

Heads up: England will be fighting for their tournament life later this week (Photo: Gareth Copley/Getty)

“The celebration is all about DJ Bravo’s song ‘Champion’,” said Gayle. “That is going to be our anthem at the World Cup, we have to keep pressing that. We built the song together, we got to dance together as well.

“It was a fantastic innings and I’m really happy to have finished the game, I didn’t leave it for anyone else.

“Honestly it’s good skills - that is what we practise. The preparation has been really good, and this was a good wicket to bat on, chasing a decent total.

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“Hopefully I can keep entertaining the Indian fans.”

When England try to work out where things went wrong they will probably have to accept that their batting didn’t quite hit the high notes even though they made a competitive score.

Joe Root was in fine form for his 48 while Jos Buttler set off a few fireworks in his 30, but neither man went on to make the score that would have meant a chase beyond 200.